A Little About Me!
Hi! My name is Emily Grossi and I am a sophomore here at The University of Pittsburgh! I am a Neuroscience major and a Chemistry minor. I am also completing a certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine! Therefore making my schedule very science oriented- so I like to take fun gen-eds to change things up! This semester I am taking German Indo-European Folktales and so far it has been so interesting and enjoyable!
Some things that I really enjoy are spending time with my friends & family (especially cooking dinners with my friends and playing Just Dance!), listening to music (Taylor Swift <3), and being active in the clubs and organizations that I am a part of!
Time For Academic Talk!
My current professional goal is to become a doctor (or PA… not sure yet. It changes every other day). But I definitely know that I want to work with children and after shadowing a neurologist this past summer, neurology is something that I want to look more into! I will be volunteering at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh this semester which I am excited for too!
In terms of research, I am considering completing the Bachelors of Philosophy through the Honors College. However, after talking with my scholar mentor, I realized I needed more exposure to individual research before committing to a BPhil. Hence, why I applied for this fellowship! I am new to individual research & really excited to learn throughout the process.
My Project!
My research is in the field of neuroscience & will be centered around the topic of psychotropic drugs. My mentor is Dr. Anthony Grace and he has provided me with many resources already to begin my research! I hope to learn more about why a drug works for one person, yet does not work for the next, on a neurological basis. I have recently learned that something similar to this is called personalized medicine, or precision medicine. My next step is to look more into those topics through readings that Dr. Grace sent me. Since I am new to the field of neuroscience I still am learning the basics! Therefore, I decided to complete a Literature Review for my project and I will be reading and studying papers given to me by my mentor!
I feel that my research is important because many people struggle with anxiety and other mental illnesses and finding the right medication can be really difficult and stressful. I hope to create a foundation on this topic that can be built upon to help determine which medication the patient needs on the first try.